


baby love me cause i'm playing on the radio

by dizzyondreams



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Pre-Slash, keith runs a late night radio show, lance has bad taste in music, the usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 03:57:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7559197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzyondreams/pseuds/dizzyondreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith took over the early morning slot on the campus radio, both as a well needed extracurricular and a favour to a friend, and his university life got exponentially more difficult.</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby love me cause i'm playing on the radio

University as a concept was difficult enough, what with the piles of assignments and extra reading _and_ the frustratingly hot lecturer who Keith had been crushing on since first year. 

Then Keith took over the early morning slot on the campus radio, both as a well needed extracurricular and a favour to a friend, and his university life got exponentially more difficult.

He liked it a lot in the beginning. He didn’t sleep much as a rule, so it gave him something to do in those weird, liminal sleepless hours where all he’d normally do is stare or wander. He’d play any music he liked, a lot of Morrissey and Bowie, completely undisturbed. He’d occasionally get calls in on the battered old phone, normally fellow insomniacs wanting him to play something a little more current. The room was cosy, the people friendly, and the silence just the right side of comforting for him. 

However, there was just one small flaw in his seemingly perfect new extracurricular. His radio slot was on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 2am to 4am, and every night at 2:30 he’d get a call that he soon learned to anticipate and dread.

The first time had been bewildering, frustrating and very hard to ignore.

“Hey, this is Keith’s Late Night Show, you’re on the air.” Keith leaned forward to slide the switch up on the board so the caller could be heard. 

“What’s up!” The voice was cheerful and very awake, and Keith frowned into the middle distance for a second before he realised he was supposed to reply. “I’m Lance!”

“Hey Lance, have you got any requests?” He asked, sliding down further in his chair as he readjusted his headset a little. What kind of name was _Lance?_. 

“More of an _observation_ , maybe.” Lance drawled over the line, and Keith found himself rolling his eyes without really meaning to. Obnoxious. “More of a pointer, perhaps.”

“Shoot.” Keith said, reaching for his mug of coffee. “Though I don’t know if I can take advice from a guy called Lance.”

“Perfectly legit name,” Lance interjected, before continuing. “Just wondering what was up with all the bullshit emo music, like, I get it’s late but c’mon. Not all of us are wallowing in our beds.”

There was a solid minute of dead air in which Keith gaped soundlessly at the opposite wall. A grinning photo of his friends stared back. “What are you _talking_ about?” He said eventually, leaning forward so quick his old chair creaked in protest. Hot coffee slopped over his hand, and he almost cursed before he realised a fair number of people were probably listening in.

“I’m just saying like, we get it, you like the Smiths, no need to _labour_ the point, dude.” Lance sounded like he was grinning, and Keith glared so hard at the phone he was surprised Lance didn’t evaporate on the other end through sheer force of will.

“What would you recommend I play?” He asked coldly, as Lance snickered on the other end.

“High School Musical?” He suggested, and that was when Keith hung up the phone.

It only increased after that, the nightly phone calls. Always with increasingly ridiculous suggestions; Camp Rock, Hannah Montana (this guy had a penchant for Disney, apparently?) _The Wiggles_ , Nickleback, etcetera. Keith began to find it equal parts amusing and frustrating, and the banter with this Lance guy made his long, sleepless nights a little more fun.

Besides, the ratings were up since Lance had started badgering him, and whenever people saw Keith on campus they’d always ask how Lance was, and would never believe him when he said how he’d never met him.

“You two do have some freaky chemistry.” Pidge noted, as they walked to class one morning. 

“I wouldn’t call it _chemistry_.” Keith muttered, eyes on the ground as he attempted to ignore Hunk and Pidge’s knowing looks past him. 

“It’s definitely something.” Hunk said affably, and Keith rolled his eyes.

“Did you miss the fact that he’s started calling me his biggest rival? Like I’m really that bothered that he’s completely resistant to good music.”

“Yeah, you’re so not bothered.” Pidge muttered, then excused himself to run to class before Keith could retort.

“He thinks Camp Rock’s soundtrack was _seminal_.” Keith bemoaned miserably, and Hunk clapped him on the shoulder with a huge, well meaning hand before departing as well. 

\-----

“I’m just saying,” Lance said for the third time that week, “I’m just sayin’, if you gave Madonna a chance you’d love her. Open your heart, and all that.”

“You did not just reference a Madonna song while trying to make me play her.” Keith muttered into the mic, trying to sound as disparaging as possible. Lance practically _cackled_.

“Ha!” He crowed. “So you do know a Madonna song!”

Keith felt himself go red, and was incredibly glad that no one could tell how he reacted to Lance’s taunts. He kept his voice purposely flat as he said, “Everyone in the world knows the popular Madonna songs.”

“Bet you a coffee they don’t.” Lance said quickly, and Keith squinted at the phone.

“No thanks.” He said decisively, and hung up a few minutes later when Lance started waxing poetic about Duran Duran.

He stuck a mix CD he’d made a while ago in, and let it play itself out as he mused over that odd comment. Was that a tenuous and badly executed way of Lance expressing his interest in meeting up in real life? They’d been shooting barbed comments back and forth for a month and a bit now, and Keith had yet to meet him on campus. He must go to the same university, but since Keith only had his voice to go off of, he’d never found him. Hard to believe a guy like Lance wasn’t opening his huge mouth all over campus for everyone to hear, but he’d managed to stay under Keith’s radar ever since that first phone call.

Not for lack of trying on Keith’s part, however. He’d asked everyone he knew about this Lance guy, and half of them had shook their heads and shrugged, and the other half had denied any knowledge, but the knowing smirk on their faces was the same everywhere. Keith wondered if this was a whole elaborate conspiracy, maybe Lance would forever be a vaguely entertaining, mostly annoying voice on the end of the line, discussing the merits of Wham! and shit talking Radiohead.

He turned down the music and answered another caller, mind on other things.

\-----

“Lance, I guess you’ve got a smart comment about what I’ve been playing?” 

Keith was tired. More tired than usual, really. He had a couple big midterms coming up and he’d been using his radio time half paying attention to the radio and half studying. It was wearing him down a little, so he wasn’t really sure if he could be bothered to keep up with Lance’s banter tonight. He needed a good sleep, a good meal, and as little hassle as possible.

“I mean, I think the Coldplay you played earlier said enough for itself, really.” Lance began, and Keith snorted and let his mind wander back to his textbook spread open in front of him. He tuned out Lance’s discussion of Coldplay as ‘true dad rock’, and almost missed the silence that descended on the room as he became absorbed in his studying.

“Wait, what?” He asked, as he realised that Lance must be waiting for his reply.  
“I missed that.”

“Nice to see I always get your full attention.” Lance said snottily, but there was a trace of hesitation to his voice Keith had never heard before.

“Pretty sure I’ve heard everything you need to say on Coldplay a million times before, and so have all the other listeners.” Keith deadpanned. When they got talking like this it was hard to remember that this was a public radio show, and anyone could hear them. There was something intimate about the warm little room Keith sat in, lit by the glow of a desk lamp and the blinking lights of the equipment. 

“I asked you out for coffee, actually.” Lance said testily. “If you can manage real human interaction.”

Annoyingly, Keith found himself momentarily speechless. “Coffee?” He managed.

“Bean water.” Lance confirmed, and Keith cast his eyes to the ceiling.

“Not confirming or denying on public radio.” He said, and then queued up a little Billy Joel to soften the blow.

“Well you know my number.” Lance said, sounding a little unsure.

“I sure do.” Keith murmured, and the rest of the show went smoothly after that. As soon as he finished, he reverse dialled the last number who’d called the ancient old phone, and barely had to sit through two rings before Lance picked up.

“Hello.” Lance said, sounding a little breathless, a lot tired. “This is weird.”

“It is.” Keith replied. He wasn’t wrong at all, there was something very close and intimate about having Lance’s voice right in his ear, about the silence of the room on all sides. His hand was a little sweaty around the receiver.

“Does you calling me mean you’re agreeing to coffee?”

“I don’t even know you.” Keith said fairly. “I’ve asked around campus about you but no one will tell me.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m an enigma.” Lance said, and Keith could practically _hear_ him preening.

“Not with a mouth as big as yours.” Keith shot back, and felt his stomach flip when Lance laughed, warm and close down the phone.

“You don’t know just how big my mouth is.” Lance murmured, and Keith made a disbelieving face when he realised he was _flirting_. Should Keith flirt back? Keith had never knowingly flirted in his life, especially not with a guy whose face he _didn’t even know_.

“You buy me a coffee and I’ll be there.” Keith said instead, and held the phone away from his ear as Lance whooped, way too loud for the early hour. 

“Finally gonna meet my biggest rival, oh man.”

“You’ve really got to stop calling me your rival.” Keith muttered, but he felt a similar twist of anticipation in his chest as they fleshed out the details.

\-----

Lance was a little taller than Keith, brown skinned with sharp, light eyes and a quick smile. Hands dug deep into the pockets of a ratty green parka, he could barely meet Keith’s eyes across the coffee shop table. The tips of his ears were red, and Keith couldn’t help the wave of endearment that washed over him at how obviously flustered he was.

“You talk a big game on the phone.” He said lightly, pushing a few stray grains if sugar around on the table. “What’s got you all frozen up now?”

Lance glared at him and crossed his arms, though the line of his mouth was soft and pleased. “I’m not frozen up, I’m just,” He cast around for an excuse, and the longer it took the further Keith’s grin stretched. In the end, he gave up with a huffed, “Shut up,” as he buried his nose in his coffee.

“Listen,” Keith said, feeling almost bad for teasing him. Lance, despite his big mouth and cocky attitude, was cute. Keith liked his long legs and expressive face, and the way his knees kept bumping against Keith’s under the table. “Listen, you don’t actually love all that music you requested, right? You were just winding me up.”

Lance eyed him over the table, eyebrow cocked. “If I said my love for One Direction eclipsed my love for a lot of things, would this date be over?”

Keith stared at him dumbly. “This is a date?”

The way Lance’s eyes crinkled as he laughed made Keith wonder if he could really deal with High School Musical if it meant he could see Lance laugh like that again.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! if you're interested i currently have commissions open over on my tumblr, the post is [here](http://newtguysler.tumblr.com/post/147822466419/fanfic-commissions)
> 
> title from radio by lana del rey! camp rock opinions by yours truly


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